This Application is also related to pending application Ser. No. 10/764,995, filed Jan. 26, 2004, pending application Ser. No. 10/764,994, filed Jan. 26, 2004; pending application Ser. No. 10/974,506, filed Oct. 27, 2004; and pending application Ser. No. 11/156,352, filed Jun. 7, 2005. The entire content of each of the above-identified pending application in both the claim of priority and statement of related applications is incorporated by reference.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to games, and more particularly to card-type games that are suitable for use in gaming establishments, and more particularly to poker-type card games that are suitable for use in gaming establishments.
2. Background of the Art
Casinos and leisure establishments continually require new games to offer their clientele. Such games are generally required to enable each player to play against a banker (who usually also acts as dealer) provided by the casino, rather than against other players. Alternatively, in a “card room” game, each player may have the option to act as banker, while the establishment runs the game on behalf of the banker and takes fees from the players.
Players typically enjoy games which can be played rapidly and which offer players a plurality of choices. A plurality of choices heightens player interest in games. It would therefore be desirable to provide card games comprising a plurality of new wagering options.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,685,774, 6,056,641, 6,237,916 and 6,345,823 to Webb (all assigned to Shuffle Master, Inc.) and U.S. Pat. No. 6,698,759 disclose methods for playing the game of Three Card Poker®, as well as some variants of the Three Card Poker® game. In one popular version of the game, three cards are dealt to each player and three cards are dealt to the dealer, all face down. Initially one or two optional wagers may be made by the player. One such wager is for the “Pair Plus” bonus bet, a bet on achieving a winning combination included in a payout table. Another wager is the game Ante on which the player competes against the dealer. The Pair Plus bet in one disclosed example is a wager that the three card hand will have a rank of at least one pair or more. The hand is paid off in multiples of the bet depending upon the rank of the hand, with up to 40:1 paid out for three-of-a-kind. If the player wants to compete against the dealer's hand he places an Ante wager. After viewing the rank of the player's hand, an additional Play wager equal to the ante must be placed by the player. The dealer's hand is then exposed. If the dealer does not have a hand of at least a certain qualifying rank (e.g., at least Queen high), the dealer's hand is not in play. If the player has not made the additional wager, the ante is collected by the dealer at some point in the play of the game. If the player has made the additional wager, the ante is paid off to the player if the dealer's hand has not qualified or if the dealer's hand is not as high a rank as the player's hand. If the dealer's hand has qualified, and the dealer's hand is higher than the player's hand, then the ante and the additional wager are collected by the house. If the dealer's hand qualifies (e.g., at least Queen high) and is lower than the player's hand rank, both the ante and additional wager are paid off, with multiples payable to the ante wager for certain high ranking hands (e.g., straights, flushes, straight flushes, three-of-a-kind, etc.). The hierarchy of the various poker hands is different than in typical five card poker games.
LET IT RIDE BONUS® Poker, as disclosed in Breeding, U.S. Pat. No. 6,334,614, entitled MULTI-TIERED WAGERING METHOD AND GAME, the content of which is hereby incorporated by reference, and the more basic play of LET IT RIDE® casino table poker game as described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,437,462 and 5,288,081 disclose a card game in which the player plays a 5 card poker game. In the base game, a player makes a three-part wager on the occurrence of one of a number of predetermined winning hands. Each player is dealt three cards, and the dealer is also dealt three cards. One dealer card is discarded, and the other two cards are placed face down on the table and serve as common cards. The player may withdraw a first portion of his bet after he has examined his partial three-card hand. Two community cards are used by each player to form a five-card hand. After the dealer turns the first community card face up, the player is given the opportunity to withdraw a second portion of his bet. The third bet must remain at risk.
Standard 5-card poker rankings are used to determine the hierarchy of payouts. The hands that pay (highest to lowest) in a typical LET IT RIDE® basic game are: royal flush, straight flush, four of a kind, full house, flush, straight, three of a kind, two pair, and a pair. Each winning hand pays odds, and all winning outcomes and corresponding payout odds are listed in a pay table. Optionally, the player can place a side bet on the occurrence of certain high ranking hands within the predetermined winning outcomes in the base game. Both the player cards and the dealer's common cards are used to define the player's hand and corresponding hand ranking in the side bet game. Players are required to make a multiple part bet, and can optionally withdraw part of the bet upon viewing some of the cards.
There are many wagering games used for gambling. Such games should be sufficiently exciting to arouse players' interest and uncomplicated so they can be understood easily by a large number of players. Ideally, the games should include more than one wagering opportunity during the course of the game, yet be able to be played rapidly to a wager resolving outcome. Exciting play, the opportunity to make more than one wager and rapid wager resolution enhance players' interest and enjoyment because the frequency of betting opportunities and bet resolutions is increased.
Wagering games, particularly those intended primarily for play in casinos, should provide players with a sense of participation and control, the opportunity to make decisions, and reasonable odds of winning, even though the odds favor the casino, house, dealer or banker. The game must also meet the requirements of regulatory agencies.
Wagering games, including wagering games for casino play, with multiple wagering opportunities are known. U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,861,041 and 5,087,405 (both to Jones et al.) disclose methods and apparatus for progressive jackpot gaming, respectively. The former patent discloses that a player may make an additional wager at the beginning of a hand, the outcome of the additional wager being determined by a predetermined arrangement of cards in the player's hand. U.S. Pat. No. 4,836,553 (to Suttle and Jones) discloses a modified version of a five card stud poker game.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,170,827 describes another poker-type casino table card game. This game may be played at a table with as many as seven players competing against a dealer. The play of the game is fairly complex, with each player having both multiple hands and utilization of a dealer's card. One method of play is to provide each player with three cards, and the dealer is provided with four cards. The dealer's play of cards is predetermined, while the players may select their desired holding. Player's hands are competing directly against the dealer's hand in each of the hands made by the player and the dealer.
Live table games have various limitations and disadvantages that have long plagued the casino industry, some of which are of general concern and apply to all or most live table games, while others relate to specific games and the use of playing cards and/or live dealers therein. Some of the principal concerns and problems are discussed below.
For example, the use of playing cards at live table games typically involves several operational requirements that are time-consuming and distract from the play or the entertainment value of the game. These operations include collecting, shuffling, dealing and reading of the cards. In many card games there is also a step of cutting the deck after it has been shuffled. In the collecting operation, a live dealer typically collects the cards just played at the end of a hand of play. This is done in preparation for playing the next hand of cards. When electronic monitoring systems are used, the cards must sometimes be collected in the specific order in which they had appeared in the play of the game and must also be collected in a specific orientation, such as all cards being in a facedown or face-up condition. The cards also are typically straightened into a stack with the long sides and short sides aligned.
These manipulations of the cards involve a break in the action of the table game and consume a significant amount of time, thus reducing the rate at which the game is played. Since the casino averages a certain percentage of wins based on the amount of hands played, any operations that reduce the amount of games that can be played over time also reduces the casino's potential earnings. As should be readily apparent, the casino industry has a keen interest in implementing devices and methods that can increase the rate at which the games are played.
The use of high quality shuffling machines, such as those produced by Shuffle Master, Inc. (Las Vegas, Nev.) and disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,655,684; 6,651,982; 6,588,751; 6,588,750; 6,568,678; 6,325,373; 6,254,096; 6,149,154; 6,139,014; 6,068,258; and 5,695,189, among others, has greatly improved card handling operations. By automating the most time-consuming portion of the card handling operations, casinos that use these patented shuffling machines can significantly increase their revenue earning capability. However, there is still room for advancement, despite the important benefits offered by Shuffle Master's shuffling machines. In particular, there still exists the need for human operators and dealers, as well as playing cards.
The expense associated with the purchasing, handling and disposing of paper and plastic playing cards can be significant. Casinos pay relatively favorable prices for card decks, but the decks roughly cost about $1 per deck at this time. There are also significant costs associated with handling and storing the new and worn playing cards. Sizable rooms located in the casino complexes are needed just to store the cards as they are coming and going. The cost of maintaining such facilities further exacerbates the expenses associated with paper and plastic playing cards. Furthermore, each casino uses decks for a very limited period of time, typically only one shift, and almost always less than one day. After this relatively brief life in the limelight, the decks are disposed of in a suitable manner. In some cases they are marked to show that they have been decommissioned from a casino and are sold as souvenirs. In other cases the playing cards are simply destroyed or recycled to eliminate the risk the cards will be used by card cheats. In any case, the cost of playing cards for a casino can easily run in the hundreds of thousands of dollars per year.
One of the other significant expenditures for the casinos relates to personnel costs. Attempts have been made to reduce time requirements for not only the dealers, relief dealers, but also for the supervisors, managers, security and the other staff that are directly or indirectly involved in the operation or maintenance of games. However, as long as there are live table games played in the casino, there is no avoiding the need to assign a suitable amount of casino employees to attend thereto.
The human factor involved in live table games also requires that casinos devote a significant amount of resources to maintaining the security and integrity of the games. Attempts to cheat may be made by players, dealers, or more significantly by dealers and players in collusion. The amount of cheating in card games is significant to the casino industry and constitutes a major security problem that has large associated losses. Accordingly, the costs of efforts to deter or prevent cheating are very large. Many of the attempts to cheat in the play of live table card games involve some aspect of dealer or player manipulation of cards during collection, shuffling, cutting or dealing cards.
Another notable problem associated with live table games is the intimidation which many novice or less experienced players feel when playing such games. Surveys have indicated that many people that are new or less experienced at gambling are inclined to play slot machines and virtual card games because they feel uncomfortable at making what they perceive as quick decisions in the presence of the dealer and other possibly more experienced players. This intimidation factor reduces participation in table games.
For reasons such as those cited above, casinos have a compelling interest in providing a poker-style game with simplified betting structure and dealing procedures that provides a player with sufficient betting options to maintain player interest, and follows the rules of poker, as poker rules are well known throughout the world. Casinos also have an interest in reducing personnel costs and the potential for fraud. Thus, casinos have a need for both interesting live table games and systems for implementing such games in a manner that prohibits cheating, reduces personnel costs, and appeals to players of all experience levels at least as much as the live table game itself. Accordingly, the present invention is directed to a game and gaming systems that meets these needs.